What does 2009 hold for asset managers? How will the crisis shape the industry? And how can retail investors be better served? Funds Europe meets with seven top asset management executive:

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Let’s talk about President-elect Obama. As well as rock concerts and the world’s biggest ever security operation, Mr Obama’s arrival at the White House will bring positive developments in infrastructure investment, according to Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP).

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Fund selectors must focus more on the operational risk of their providers, due mainly to recent events, writes Niklas Tell... Please login or register to see the full article

In what the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama) has described as “a new  milestone in the creation of an effective single market for investment funds”, the UCITS IV Directive has today been passed by the European Parliament.

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Happy New Year from everyone at funds europe and welcome to our first newsletter of 2009.

The New Year has started off, if not with a surge of enthusiasm, at least with a trickle of cautious optimism. After the confidence-shattering events of last year, and the crushing outflows experienced by the industry, many firms are calling the bottom.

A survey by consultants Watson Wyatt shows that: “Fund managers globally have a generally optimistic outlook for 2009 and predict that markets in most regions will begin to recover this year.” Not everyone’s on happy pills, however. Keith Wade, Schroders’ chief economist and strategist, predicts “gloom and doom as we head into 2009”.

We may have to wait a while to find out who’s right about the markets. But there’s one issue of great importance to the European fund industry that’s going to be cleared up pretty sharply this year.

Tomorrow, the European Parliament votes on UCITS IV. If it goes through, as most national associations hope it will, we will finally have a European management company passport and will be one step closer to the elusive goal of a single market for investment funds.

For that reason, we’re keeping it short today and will be back tomorrow with a special edition after the vote. We leave you with our favourite market outlook so far this year. “Fires are still burning across the world’s economies, and many of them – including those in Detroit – will burn for some time,” Guy Monson, chairman of the investment policy committee at Sarasin Group, poetically opines. “But in other areas [...] the smoke is beginning to clear.”

Ah.

Fiona Rintoul, Editorial Director
©2009 funds europe

Industry efforts to bring more automation to hedge fund processing are gaining momentum. Nicholas Pratt charts the progress of the Sharp initiative and what it means for the alternatives industry Please login or register to see the full article

Multi-asset classes and funds of funds have made performance attribution more difficult. Lynn Strongin Dodds finds that advances have been made... Please login or register to see the full article

Brokers and asset managers may argue that clients’ wishes for best execution are better served without the complication of commission recapture. Nicholas Pratt asks what this would mean for pension funds... Please login or register to see the full article

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In November 2008 FE looked at the tax treatment of fund managers in the UK.. Heini Rudishuli, partner at Lenz & Staffelin (Zurich), now focuses on Switzerland, trying to attract more investment professionals ... Please login or register to see the full article